Last updated on 2020-01-21
Governor Noem delivers her State of the State Address Tuesday… but it’s largely redundant. Didn’t she already spend $1.4 million to hire Minnesotans to tell the world the state of our state?
How much more needs to be said about South Dakota and its government?
Well, maybe just this economic morsel about the state’s priorities:
In 2012, average teacher pay in South Dakota was $38,804. This year, if we take last year’s average of $48,230 and increase that by the 2.5% funding boost that Governor Noem wrote into her FY2020 budget, we get an estimated 2020 average teacher pay of $49,436. Thanks to the half-penny sales tax the Governor Dennis Daugaard and the 2016 Legislature, teachers managed to take home an annual average raise over eight years of 3.07%.
How do those raises compare with the rates of increase for various top executives in the state?
| position | 2012 | 2020 | %chg 8yr | %chg annual |
| Attorney General | 97,928 | 116,277 | 18.74% | 2.17% |
| Warden, State Pen | 98,953 | 120,012 | 21.28% | 2.44% |
| Pres. SDSU | 321,360 | 390,948 | 21.65% | 2.48% |
| Sec GF&P | 104,000 | 129,105 | 24.14% | 2.74% |
| Sec DENR | 100,000 | 124,140 | 24.14% | 2.74% |
| average K-12 teacher | 38,804 | 49,436 | 27.40% | 3.07% |
| Sec Education | 103,500 | 135,300 | 30.72% | 3.41% |
| Sec DSS | 104,800 | 140,000 | 33.59% | 3.69% |
| Chief of Staff | 105,000 | 140,375 | 33.69% | 3.70% |
| Sec. Tourism | 85,000 | 116,879 | 37.50% | 4.06% |
| Sec. Revenue | 90,000 | 124,140 | 37.93% | 4.10% |
| Head FB Coach, SDSU | 125,751 | 300,000 | 138.57% | 11.48% |
K-12 teachers have seen their pay grow at a faster rate than pay for the Attorney General (though the fact that Jason Ravnsborg is making any more money for twiddling his thumbs than Marty Jackley did for actually trying cases should disgust every taxpayer), the warden at the pen, SDSU’s president, and the secretaries of Game Fish & Parks and the Department of Environment & Natural Resources. Teacher pay has not increased as fast as salaries for the secretaries of Education, Department of Social services, and Revenue; the Governor’s chief of staff, and the head football coach at SDSU.
Make of those increases what you will… and lets see how many of those folks the Legislature sees fit to pay more, over Governor Noem’s objection, in the coming budget year.
Update 2020.01.21 05:16 CST: I added the salary change for Secretary of Tourism, who has to work extra hard to overcome all the negative PR the Governor and Legislature keep inflicting on our fair state.
The $ is there for teacher raises, but maybe Klueless Kristi is saving it for a fat raise for her family.
Last In Innovation. OWN IT and FIX IT!
This encyclopedic California framework for the social sciences is 842 pages long. It’s truly a remarkable document. It goes into great detail on everything from Native American, German, English, Irish, Scandinavian, Japanese and Filipino contributions to national history and includes groundbreaking through-line L.G.B.T.Q. history.
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